Days after the Bombay High Court granted ad-interim relief to actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha by restraining certain websites, social media accounts, AI-linked entities, and others from misusing and exploiting his personality rights, his lawyer explains what the order entails and why it was necessary.
“Various forms of illegal exploitation of his persona were being done for commercial gain. This included merchandise being sold on online platforms without his permission, such as mugs, fridge magnets, etc. People were making money out of it.” Hiren Kamod, counsel and IP expert, Bombay HC, tells us. He adds, “There were a lot of fake profiles in his name. The third infringement was distorting his pictures to make GIFs and memes. There was also pornographic material on which his face was morphed. We wanted to curtail this rampant usage.”
However, this order does not stop comics from mimicking Shatrughan and his iconic dialogue, ‘Khamosh’. Kamod explains, “If Sunil Grover or any comedian wants to imitate him, there can’t be any injunction against them; there is no commercial exploitation. What you can’t do is sell any product with the actor’s name or mannerisms like ‘Khamosh’. None of the personality rights protection orders can stop any actors from impersonating/mimicking artistes.”
Counsel Kamod has also represented singers Arijit Singh and Sonu Nigam in personality rights cases. Referring to Arijit’s 2024 case, he says it was among the first of its kind that he handled.
“A lot of websites were converting anyone’s voice into Arijit’s voice. Some were even staging online concerts in his name and making money from them. The injunction was passed to stop such misrepresentation,” he explains.
Speaking about Sonu’s case, he adds, “There was an individual named Sonu Nigam Singh who was using ‘Sonu Nigam’ as his display name and profile picture (on X). He had garnered over one lakh followers, including the official account of PM Narendra Modi. Certain posts made by this person led to backlash against Sonu. The court recognised that a name can function as a trademark and directed the individual to always use his full name to avoid confusion.”
Protecting personality rights: When legal action is possible
A celebrity can seek legal protection against:
Any kind of unauthorised endorsement
Misappropriation or misuse of name or image in advertising
Voice imitation for profit
Use of digital avatars for commercial exploitation
Deepfake identity misuse
False association claims
Unlicensed merchandising
Social media impersonation
AI-generated persona replication
